Declaration of Independence
This founding father is oldest the signer of the Declaration.
Benjamin Franklin
He was 70 years old when he signed the Declaration of Independence. The youngest signer was 26-year-old Edward Rutledge of South Carolina.
This was the first state to ratify the new US Constitution and therefore become the first state in the Union.
Delaware
The state's Ratification Convention approved the Constitution on December 7th, 1787. Pennsylvania and New Jersey followed closely behind.
"And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country."
John F. Kennedy
From his inaugural address on January 20, 1961.
The first ten amendments to the Constitution are known as this.
The Bill of Rights
Ratified in 1791, they were designed to protect fundamental individual liberties.
This person was the first signer of the Declaration as the president of the Continental Congress.
John Hancock
His signature is famously the largest, which he joked was so the British king could read it without his glasses.
This state, the largest in the contiguous US, has the distinction of being the only state that was an internationally recognized sovereign republic before voluntarily joining the US.
Texas
The Texas State Legislature and a special convention of elected delegates ratified the US Constitution on July 4th, 1845, and the state officially became the 29th state on December 28th, 1845.
"Give me liberty or give me death!"
Patrick Henry
From an address on March 23, 1775, to the Second Virginia Convention urging the colony to mobilize for military defense against the British.
The amendment, passed in 1919, prohibits the "manufacture, and sale, transportation of intoxicating liquors".
18th
It was repealed by the 21st amendment in 1933, which ended national Prohibition and established the power of the states to regulate the sale of alcohol within their own borders.
This is the total number of delegates who signed the Declaration.
56
The identities of these signers were kept secret for more than six months to protect them from British retaliation, as it would have been considered an act of high treason.
This set of twin states were admitted to the Union on the same day: November 2, 1889.
North Dakota and South Dakota
President Benjamin Harrison deliberately shuffled the statehood papers so no one could determine which was signed first.
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
Abraham Lincoln
The Gettysburg Address is considered one of the greatest speeches in American history despite being only 272 words long--Lincoln delivered it in less than two minutes.
This most recent amendment, which passed in 1992, is aimed at reducing corruption and conflicts of interest in the legislative branch by requiring that any salary changes take effect only after the next election.
27th
Initially proposed in 1789, it was largely forgotten until a student at the University of Texas Austin wrote a paper in which he claimed it could still be ratified, and later launched a nationwide campaign to complete the ratification.
Although the Declaration was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4th, most of the delegates didn't actually sign it until this date.
August 2nd
After the final text was approved, they commissioned a formal copy on high-quality parchment, which took weeks to prepare. It also took time to gather all the delegates in Philadelphia.
This eventual state first became a territory in 1854, stretching from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains and north to the Canadian border.
Nebraska
The original Nebraska Constitution submitted to Congress for admission restricted voting rights to white males. Congress amended the Act to remove that restriction. President Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode the veto to pass the bill. Thus on March 1st, 1867, President Johnson reluctantly signed the proclamation declaring Nebraska's statehood, making it the only state admitted to the Union by a presidential veto override.
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
King delivered this speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on August 28th, 1963, to a crowd of more than 200,000 for the March on Washington.
This amendment, ratified in 1971, lowers the voting age to 18.
26th
Ratified in record time during the Vietnam War, this amendment was fueled by the popular slogan, "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote."
This is the number of future presidents who signed the Declaration of Indepence.
Bonus: Name one of them.
Two
John Adams (2nd president)
Thomas Jefferson (3rd president)
George Washington did not sign the Declaration of Independence.
These two states were added in 1959.
Alaska and Hawaii
Alaska's strategic importance in WWII and the Cold War paved the way for statehood on January 3, 1959.
Hawaii was admitted on August 21st, 1959, following a popular referendum that passed by over 94%.
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress... Power concedes nothing without demand."
Frederick Douglass
On August 3, 1957, Douglass delivered a “West India Emancipation” speech at Canandaigua, New York, during which he sounded a foretelling of the coming Civil War. This speech became the most quoted of all his orations.
The 25th amendment, which clarifies the line of presidential succession, was introduced in response to the assassination of this president.
John F. Kennedy
Prior to the 25th Amendment, there were no clear constitutional protocols to determine who would take power if a president became physically or mentally incapacitated, or how to replace a vice-president.